Color Wheel [Import]

It must be hard to find a sound, especially one that is based in drone and drift, and continue to constantly push the limits of that sound without drifting too far away from the elements which define your essence. Growing have managed to do just that, moving gracefully from drone drenched space rock to minimal rumble and whir, to wherever it is they are now, some musical netherworld, equal parts subtle shifting shimmer, grinding distorted dirge, and sparkling barely there ambience. No higher compliment can be paid than "how the hell do I describe these amazing sounds?!" And really, it seems that any cursory description could not possibly do justice to the amazing sonic world Growing have created.

On Color Wheel, the drift and rumble and shimmer of the past few releases is still present, but stretched out even further, in even stranger directions, some, on first listen sound almost 'wrong', like the almost cheesy panpipe sounds of "Cumulusless", but within seconds some internal logic reveals those sounds to be sort of kind of perfect, in their own skewed way, and then they begin to blur and become a gorgeously murky melodic drift. Other songs are stretched even more dramatically, songs and parts are peppered with strange production techniques and unusually distorted glitches, jagged edits and completely unlikely sequencing.

The opening track "Fancy Period" begins as a cool ambient whir, high end melodies swirling and drifting ever skyward, before the drone sort of buckles, and those high end meldoies become distinct peals, each fluttering weightless above a shuffling fuzzy stuttering rhythm, almost like a skipping Sunroof! cd.

Track two, "Friendly Confines", is actually the most 'unfriendly' of the bunch, the core of the track a huge swath of downtuned distorted sludge guitar, tinkling melodies buried in the murk and mire, a shifting wall of rooooaaaarrr, like a slow motion mudslide, before the melodies are freed, the dirge drifts off and all that is left is a series of very Fripp / Eno guitar figures, repetitive and sweetly hypnotic.

The record's closing track "Green Pasture" mines similar territory, a blissy barely there drone, peppered with stacatto bursts of blown out vacuum cleaner metal guitar, a super dynamic seesaw, between burbling dreaminess and massive SUNNO)))-like dirge. Quite possibley the coolest Growing track yet...

Amazing albums are few and far between. And when I say amazing, I mean something that confuses the senses and makes you question the validity and meaningfullness of contemporary popular music upon the first listen. This album, as with all Growing albums, is best when listened to at maximum volume. It must not only be heard, but felt, absorbed.

If you dig Growing as I and an increasing number of music fans do, go see them live. It is only there that you can truly experience their power. I have had the good fortune to have seen them twice in the last few months, and I am telling you, they are at their creative best right now. They are as good and loud as it gets live, and are some of the most approachable and friendly touring musicians that you will ever have the pleasure to meet.

Growing, as with many bands that push the envelope of sound and music, will probably never attain significant commercial success, and I am almost certain that it is not their intention to do so. The path they have chosen is one in which the music can take many shapes and grow and expand according to their will, not the will of popular taste. They are the very essence of what music is allowed to be. Freedom.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews  5.0 out of 5 stars